INDAR debonding process: structural debondable adhesive used for ground testing of GAIA segments

Rescoll Technological Center has developed and patented a debonding process, INDAR Inside^®, that offers a simple and efficient solution to the disassembling on command of structural bonds. Based on the use of specific additives activated by heating at a certain temperature, this new technology drastically reduces the dismantling time and fulfill the main characteristics required by this application, like no change in processing (implementation, curing conditions,…) and no or slight modification of the mechanical properties. An interesting application of this debondable adhesive technology is detailed in the lines below.

The INDAR process has been used for the development of the Gaia structure. The Gaia structure is a brazed Silicon Carbide (SiC) structure. The test of the elementary part requires fixing onto the test bench the part with structural bonding. The use of the INDAR debonding process allows easy dismantling of the part with a lower temperature and safer and cleaner process than a standard disbondable process of glue burning at high temperature.

The experimental work (mechanical testing, differential scanning calorimetry) carried out confirmed the possibility to use this kind of debondable adhesive for ground qualification of the SiC segments. The following graphs give an overview of the results obtained on a SiC- disassembling epoxy adhesive- Invar assembly in compressive shear and pull out tests. After thermal activation at 200°C, the residual adhesive strength is close to zero and the parts are easy to clean thanks to interfacial failure.

After lab qualification, the debondable adhesive was successfully used on Gaia first segments, ground tests are still on the way for the complete testing of the whole structure.

More info: tomas.bergara@rescoll.fr

adhesive • adhesives • debonding • dismantling • INDAR • structural